St Katharine Cree

St Katharine Cree
view from the southwest, showing the 16th century tower
OS grid reference	TQ33398114
Country	England
Denomination	Church of England
Website	St Katharine Cree
Architecture
Style	Jacobean
Administration
Diocese	London
Clergy
Rector	Oliver Ross

St Katharine Cree is a Church of England church in the Aldgate ward of the City of London, on the north side of Leadenhall Street near Leadenhall Market. It was founded in 1280. The present building dates from 1628–30. Formerly a parish church, it is now a guild church.

History

Former building

The parish served by the church existed by 1108, when it was served by the Augustinian Holy Trinity Priory, Aldgate, also called Christ Church, which was founded by Maud, queen at the time of King Henry I. The parishioners used the priory church but this proved unsatisfactory and disruptive to the priory's activities.

The prior partly resolved the problem in 1280^[1] by founding St Katharine Cree as a separate church for the parishioners. The site of the present church was originally in the priory's churchyard and it is possible that the church began as a cemetery chapel. It took its name from the priory, "Cree" being a corrupted abbreviation of "Christ Church". It was initially served by a canon appointed by the prior but this did not prove satisfactory either, so in 1414 the church was established as a parish church in its own right. The present tower was added about 1504.

Describing the building at the end of the 16th century, John Stow wrote

"this church seemeth to be very old; since the building whereof the high street hath been so often raised by pavements that now men are fain to descend into the said church by divers steps, seven in number."^[2]

Current building

Inside the nave of St Katharine Cree, looking east to the altar

The present church was built in 1628–30,^[2] retaining the Tudor tower of its predecessor. It is larger than the previous church, incorporating a piece of ground previously occupied by a cloister on the north side, and the floor level is considerably higher. The rebuilt church was consecrated by William Laud, Bishop of London on 31 January 1631.^[2] His vestments and the form of service that he used for the consecration were later held against him in his trial and conviction for heresy, when Puritans accused him of having displayed Catholic sympathies through his "bowings and cringings." He is commemorated by a chapel in the church.

The church escaped the Great Fire of London in 1666^[3] and suffered only minor damage in the London Blitz of the Second World War.^[4] However, structural problems required extensive restoration in 1962. It is now one of the City's Guild churches.

St Katharine Cree is a significant church of the Jacobean period, a time when few new churches were built. It is the only Jacobean church to have survived in London. The identity of its architect is unknown. It has a high nave,^[5] linked with the narrow aisles by arcades supported on Corinthian columns.^[2] The church is 31 yards (28 m) long and 17 yards (16 m) wide; the height to the ceiling of the nave is 37 feet (11 m).^[2]

17th century rose window

The chancel has a rose window, reputedly modelled on the much larger one in Old St Paul's Cathedral (destroyed in the Great Fire). The window and its stained glass are original, dating from 1630. The baptismal font dates from around 1640. The vaulted ceiling bears bosses of the arms of the City's livery companies; this dates mostly from the restoration of 1962. The church is a Grade I listed building.^[6]

By the south wall of St Katharine's is a memorial to RMS Lancastria, a cruiser lost at sea during the Second World War in 1940. It includes a model of the ship and the ship's bell.^[7]

St Katharine's has a ring of six bells. Lester and Pack of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast five of them including the treble bell in 1754. Thomas II Mears of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry cast the tenor bell in 1842. The church clock has a bell, also cast by Lester and Pack in 1754.^[8] In the summer of 2007 they were rung for the first time since 1880. An appeal to raise £60,000 to restore the bells to full ringing order was launched in November 2007, and he project was completed in 2009.^[9] It is the only tower in the City where the bells are rung from a ground floor ringing chamber.

Today St Katharine's is a guild church and has no parish, but chose some years ago to dedicate its ministry to the worlds of finance, commerce and industry. The guild vicar is also Rector of St Olave Hart Street.

Notable people associated with the church

Sir Nicholas Throckmorton's monument

Stephen Charnock (1628–80), Puritan Presbyterian clergyman and theologian, was born in the parish.
Hans Holbein the Younger's grave (died 1543) has been claimed by both St Andrew Undershaft church and by St Katharine Cree. St Katharine Cree's claim is stronger because the nearby abbey had been recently destroyed, while St Andrew Undershaft's graveyard was already full.
Both Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel played the organ at the church.
Sir Nicholas Throckmorton (died 1571) is buried in the church.

References

↑ Hibbert, C; Weinreb, D; Keay, J, eds. (2008) [1983]. The London Encyclopaedia. London: Pan Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4050-4924-5.
1 2 3 4 5 Daniell, AE (1896). London City Churches. London: Constable. pp. 94–98.
↑ Pepys, Samuel (1985). Latham, R, ed. The Shorter Pepys. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 484. ISBN 0-14-009418-0.
↑ Cobb, G (1942). The Old Churches of London. London: Batsford.
↑ Tucker, T (2006). The Visitors Guide to the City of London Churches. London: Friends of the City Churches. ISBN 0-9553945-0-3.
↑ Historic England. "Church of St Katherine Cree (Grade I) (1064627)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
↑ "HMT Lancastria 17 June 1940 and Operation Aerial". The Manchesters. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
↑ Baldwin, John (8 April 2010). "London, Leadenhall Street S Katharine Cree". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. Central Council for Church Bell Ringers. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
↑ "St Katharine Cree, Leadenhall St". Love's Guide to the Church Bells of the City of London.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to St Katharine Cree.

Churches in the City of London

Existing churches	All Hallows-by-the-Tower All Hallows-on-the-Wall City Temple Dutch Church, Austin Friars St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe St Andrew, Holborn St Andrew Undershaft St Anne and St Agnes St Bartholomew-the-Great St Bartholomew-the-Less St Benet, Paul's Wharf St Botolph, Aldersgate St Botolph, Aldgate St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate St Bride, Fleet Street St Clement, Eastcheap St Dunstan-in-the-West St Edmund, King and Martyr St Ethelburga, Bishopsgate St Giles, Cripplegate St Helen, Bishopsgate St James, Garlickhythe St Katharine Cree St Lawrence Jewry St Magnus the Martyr St Margaret Lothbury St Margaret Pattens St Martin, Ludgate St Mary Abchurch St Mary Aldermary St Mary Moorfields St Mary Woolnoth St Mary-at-Hill St Mary-le-Bow St Michael, Cornhill St Michael, Paternoster Royal St Nicholas, Cole Abbey St Olave, Hart Street St Paul's Cathedral St Peter upon Cornhill St Sepulchre-without-Newgate St Stephen Walbrook St Vedast alias Foster Temple Church

Former churches	All Hallows Bread Street All Hallows Honey Lane All Hallows Lombard Street All Hallows, Staining (tower remains) All-Hallows-the-Great All-Hallows-the-Less Christ Church, Greyfriars (ruins remain) College of Minor Canons Holy Trinity Gough Square Holy Trinity the Less Hospital of St Thomas of Acre Old St Paul's Cathedral St Alban, Wood Street (tower remains) St Alphage London Wall (ruins remain) St Andrew Hubbard St Ann Blackfriars St Antholin, Budge Row St Audoen within Newgate St Augustine, Watling Street (tower remains) St Augustine Papey St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange St Benet Fink St Benet Gracechurch St Benet Sherehog St Botolph Billingsgate St Christopher le Stocks St Dionis Backchurch St Dunstan-in-the-East (ruins remain) St Faith under St Paul's St Gabriel Fenchurch St George Botolph Lane St Gregory by St Paul's St James Duke's Place St John the Baptist upon Walbrook St John the Evangelist Friday Street St John Zachary St Katherine Coleman St Laurence Pountney St Leonard, Eastcheap St Leonard, Foster Lane St Margaret Moses St Margaret, New Fish Street St Martin Orgar (tower remains) St Martin Outwich St Martin Pomary St Martin Vintry St Mary Aldermanbury St Mary Axe St Mary Bothaw St Mary Colechurch St Mary Mounthaw St Mary Somerset (tower remains) St Mary Staining St Mary Woolchurch Haw St. Mary Magdalen Milk Street St Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street St Matthew Friday Street St Michael Bassishaw St Michael, Crooked Lane St Michael Queenhithe St Michael-le-Querne St Michael Wood Street St Mildred, Bread Street St Mildred, Poultry St Nicholas Acons St Nicholas Olave St Nicholas Shambles St Olave, Silver Street St Olave, Old Jewry (tower remains) St Pancras, Soper Lane St Peter le Poer St Peter, Paul's Wharf St Peter, Westcheap St Stephen Coleman Street St Swithin, London Stone St Thomas the Apostle

Coordinates: 51°30′48.28″N 0°4′44.88″W / 51.5134111°N 0.0791333°W / 51.5134111; -0.0791333

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